Category Archives: Events

On July 5, faculty and students from the M.A. in Applied Theatre program traveled to Kigali, Rwanda for the fourth year of “Project Rwanda: Drama and Theatre Education for Reconciliation and Development.” The project was conceived as a multi-year program through which Applied Theatre students work with Rwandan young people between the ages of 11 and 25 to develop their social, educational, and cultural skills through drama and theatre.

The twin aims of the Project are to develop the use of theatre and drama strategies to promote unity and reconciliation among Rwandans and to create job opportunities by building applied theatre troupes, first in schools and later, in the professional, cultural milieu.

The ePortfolio Team invites you to nominate students from the past year who have done exceptionally well with their ePortfolio assignments in your courses to participate in the Second Annual SPS ePortfolio Showcase. This year’s “Featured Student ePortfolio” winners will receive a $100 Amazon gift card!

Last month we recorded an ePortfolio Webinar Information Session to help students learn more about ePortfolios at SPS and how they can be used for academic and career development. The video is available on the ePortfolio Showcase website, SPS’s YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umnRnSkkYNo, and below. We encourage you to tell your students about it and also let them know that they can nominate their own ePortfolios.

Please use the nomination form to send us your Fall 2012/Spring 2013 nominations by May 24th. If you are interested in volunteering to help evaluate nominated ePortfolios please send an email to Sarah Morgano at sarah.morgano@mail.cuny.edu.

Hold the date of May 3, 2013 and register below for our faculty development day workshop event organized around the theme of improving instruction through better design. Activities will include a morning plenary session which will focus on the common challenges of design and redesign for all types of courses, a lab session (offered twice– in the morning or afternoon) on the uses of Blackboard Collaborate, and a lunchtime panel on redesign featuring faculty presenters.

Among the subtopics we will explore is that of small group work, which remains one of the most challenging design and implementation issues for faculty. As part of our lunchtime panel, we will learn from fellow faculty who have redesigned major components of their courses and in the afternoon, identify the most suitable Blackboard layout and tools to match various types of course content and activities. Faculty will also have an opportunity to explore how Blackboard Collaborate can provide some additional options for faculty presentation of content, for virtual office hours, and for faculty-student and student-student interaction.

This on-site event is open to and appropriate for all SPS faculty, whether teaching face-to-face, online or hybrid courses. Faculty are welcome to attend any or all sessions during the day, but we ask you to register and to indicate your preferred Blackboard Collaborate lab session and whether you are joining us for lunch, so that we are able to accommodate as many faculty as possible.

Transformations in Teaching and Learning: Research and Evidence Based Practices at CUNY

What are the most effective pedagogies, policies and practices that we can use to maximize student learning at CUNY? How does research help us identify these practices? What works based on the scholarship of teaching and learning, and how do we know that it works? How can we adopt evidence based practices to improve learning in our own classrooms and throughout our campuses?

This year’s Coordinated Undergraduate Education (CUE) Conference provides an in-depth view of research and evidence based practices across the university, from the classroom, in the field, online and through collaborations and partnerships. Through a plenary overview, actual case presentations, workshops and poster sessions, faculty, administrators and staff will have an opportunity to explore and experiment with research and evidence based practices. Consider submitting a proposal about your own evidence or research based practice by the March 15th deadline.

For full information about the conference and the CFP submission process click here or visit the address below:

Superstorm Sandy and its disastrous effects on the lives of working-class people have propelled the issue of climate change to the forefront of public policy concerns, challenging leaders at all levels to make it a top priority. The Murphy Institute joins the discussion with a forum, titled “Confronting the Climate Crisis: Can Labor Shape an Effective Strategy?”

Organized in collaboration with the Worker Institute at Cornell, the forum will be held on Thursday, January 17th, 2013 from 8:30 to 10:15 a.m. at the Murphy Institute, 25 West 43rd Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY.

Scientists have said that global greenhouse gas emissions must peak this decade if we are to have any chance of stabilizing our climate and to prevent runaway global warming. Yet 2012 set a record high of 39 billion tons of emissions, 58 percent above 1990 levels. Dr. James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the world’s most influential climate scientist, will explain the nature and scope of the climate emergency we face and outline what needs to be done to meet this enormous challenge.

In response, labor leaders David Coles, President, Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada; Hector Figueroa, President, Local 32 BJ, Service Employees International Union; and Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director, New York Taxi Workers Alliance will discuss the role of organized labor in shaping a regional, national, and global approach to both the causes and effects of climate change and will address some key questions: Can labor join with other social movements to advance a bold climate protection agenda that can build workers’ power? Or will unions back off in the face of fossil fuel companies committed to tar sands, shale gas, Artic drilling, and other forms of ‘extreme energy’?

Join us on Saturday, November 17th, from 10am to 5pm, as SPS and CUNY join City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s efforts to support hard hit areas in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. Buses for volunteers will leave at 10 a.m. from 250 Broadway across from City Hall. Please look for the Gray Line New York double-decker buses. Expect to return to City Hall at around 5:00 p.m. Sign up here.

Please be sure that you are able to join us for the full day, and remember to wear water resistant or waterproof footwear, to dress warmly and in clothes that may get ruined or dirty, and to bring water.

Hold the date of March 30, 2012 for our faculty development workshop event organized around the theme of using technology to promote writing in all disciplines. This on-site event is open to and appropriate for all SPS faculty, whether teaching face-to-face, online or hybrid courses.

Activities will include a morning plenary session which will focus on the common challenges and creative approaches to designing effective student writing for all disciplines, a lab session (offered twice– in the morning or afternoon) that will explore how a variety of different technology tools can enhance student writing assignments, and a lunchtime panel featuring faculty presenters. There will also be an opportunity for you to learn more about Blackboard 9 through a lab session available in either a morning or afternoon session.

Faculty are welcome to attend one or more of the sessions during the day, but we ask you to register for your preferred lab sessions and lunch so that we are able to accommodate as many faculty as possible.

The CUNY School of Professional Studies is delighted to announce that 10 students and 2 alumni from its Master of Arts in Applied Theatre program are working on the upcoming CUNY Creative Arts Team (CAT) Youth Theatre original production of The Power Game. The play investigates the relationships and responsibilities that exist between people and power, and the kinds of power young people want and have.

The award-winning CUNY CAT Youth Theatre is a free after-school and weekend program that operates virtually year-round. Its 100-plus members, ages 11 to 24, come from all five boroughs of New York City and represent 58 different public schools. This year is the company’s 15th anniversary. There are no auditions – but participants must commit to being active parts of the CAT Youth Theatre community. New members are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Together, the teens collaboratively create and present original ensemble theatre productions on topical subjects.

Helen White

“The Power Game developed from the young people’s reflections on how they see power at play in their own lives,”says Helen White, who is a faculty member in the SPS Master of Arts in Applied Theatre program, as well as the CAT Youth Theatre founder, and program director. “Since September, the 42 members who are working on this production have been researching the many faces of power – from physical strength, to peer pressure, to political authority – uncovering many players of the ‘power game’. They have improvised and refined original dramatic scenes that juxtapose systemic power with individual power and have exposed the nuances that exist within these power roles.”

The Power Game will be performed at the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers Street, Manhattan, from February 25 to March 6. In addition to its public performances, the CAT Youth Theatre will present an afternoon program for school and community youth groups.

For schedule, tickets, and group discount information, contact Elly Richards at (212) 652-2828 or elly.richards@mail.cuny.edu.

“The Deadly Classroom: What Can I Do?”

Wednesday June 23, 2010

6:00pm – 7:15pm

CUNY Graduate School and University Center

365 5th Avenue (between 34th and 35th streets) Room C205

New York, NY 10016

FREE

Every adult educator wants to prevent the “deadly class” – one in which we can’t get a discussion going, learners are too tired to participate, or students actively resist learning. Join CUNY School of Professional Studies Adjunct Professor Susan Fountain on Wednesday, June 23rd to discuss strategies for dealing with classroom challenges that every adult educator inevitably faces. She will draw on adult learning theory to examine how building self-direction, collaboration, critical reflection, and social support can lead to an engaged learning environment.

Presenter: Susan Fountain is an Adjunct Professor with the CUNY School of Professional Studies where she teaches courses on handling conflict, interpersonal dynamics, and adult learning and development. She is also a staff and development consultant for schools, nonprofits, and UN agencies and the curriculum developer of SPS’ new Advanced (Graduate) Certificate in Adult Learning: Program Design and Facilitation.

SPS’ Advanced (Graduate) Certificate in Adult Learning: Program Design and Facilitation is a four-course (12 credit) certificate in which students will explore how theory and research on adult learning and development can support innovative teaching and learning in the workplace, community-based organizations, and the college classroom. For more information and registration, visit www.sps.cuny.edu/adultlearning.